Health Matters: Helping Children with Chest Wall Malformation


It’s called congenital chest wall malformation—and doctors say it affects about one in 400 children. “The congenital chest wall malformation program is a program that allows us to bring expert care to children of Southwest Florida that have a variety of different anomalies that affect the chest,” said Dr. Andre Hebra, a pediatric surgeon on the medical staff of Lee Health.

The condition can create functional problems for children where they have difficulty exercising, breathing, and can even experience cardiac problems. “The most common type of congenital chest wall malformation is known as pectus excavatum and this is where the sternum and the ribs, they are caved in, and they compress on the heart and displace the heart and lungs. There’s a number of different types of other congenital anomalies where the sternum may be protruding out or protruding to one side where the sternum might not be formed completely so children who have any type of anomaly like that would benefit from being evaluated by us,” he said.

Children may benefit from treatments like therapy or minimally invasive surgery. “We offer the minimally invasive approach, also known as the NUSS procedure. It’s really revolutionized the way we manage this. It used to be a pretty invasive, open procedure and now it’s a minimally invasive surgery. It’s a very different approach than what it was 20 years ago,” Dr. Hebra said. Doctors say it’s important for children to be seen as soon as a diagnosis is made to determine the best treatment necessary.

View More Health Matters video segments at LeeHealth.org/Healthmatters/ Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health – Caring People. Inspiring Care. Visit LeeHealth.org


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